Alternian Invasion
by JeckParadox
Summary: An alternate universe where the trolls entered the gate before Jack stopped them. The trolls end up scattered across the Earth in groups of twos, some finding refuge with the Kids, some having to survive on their own, all trying to get back together. The story will center the most on the character below, but all the beta kids and trolls will be important. Also a crossover with CoN
1. Cancer and Scorpio

EARTHSTUCK

My first Homestuck Fanfiction, please have mercy. A semi-crossover with Castle of Nations (that's where the Endzone/Law of Talos participants Climber & Karl come from), which inspired some of the carnie folk.

As another note, I'm uncomfortable swearing, so language will be both drastically toned down and censored, I hope it doesn't interfere with their character's speech. I'm writing this just for fun (why else does one write Fanfiction?), so it probably won't update often, sorry.

Chapter 1; Cancer and Scorpio

Karkat pulled himself to his knees, wiping some mud off of his face. His eyes widen as he notices some red mixed in with the mud. " #$%... just great, the moment we claim our reward we're thrown face-first into the mud. JUST FREAKING GREAT!" Karkat growled, standing up and brushing himself off. He looked upwards at the night sky and shivered slightly, it was colder here than on Alternia… He quickly surveyed the nearby area, he was surrounded by cube-ish alien hives. He pulled some grass from the lawnring of the closest one and moved forward. He stopped by a skeletal tree with a black rubber circle tied to it.

He stared at it, uncomprehending of any possible use the object had. He turned around sharply as an audible "oooooooof!" was heard.

"I was wondering when the rest of you jerks were going to show up, what took you so long?"

"You exploded into light!" Vriska shouted.

"Huh?"

"When you walked through the door you just seemed to explode. We all freaked out for a while til Aradia told us that was supposed to happen. Then I rightly claimed my spot to enter next."

Karkat frowned. "So, where are the others?"

Vriska brushed herself off, frowning that her God-Tier pajamas had gotten muddy. "I don't know. They're probably just wasting time celebrating that you're finally not giving orders anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"We won the game, now you're just the…" Vriska's eyes widened as her eyes focused on Karkat's forehead. "..Karkat? You're bleeding."

Karkat reached up and felt his forehead, his eyes shrinking to pinpoints. He looked hesitantly at Vriska. "…yeah… I am… w-what do you care? It's not serious."

"I've never seen that shade of red before…"

"…yeah…" Karkat replied after a little while. "…Does it matter?" He asked abrasively.

"…I guess not. Crap, can't really call you a rust-blood."

"Terezi calls it candy-red." Karkat said, smiling slightly. He looked up at the sky and narrowed his eyes. "Where are the rest?"

Vriska marched around in a circle, staring at the rubber wheel for a few seconds before giving up on it. "Whatever, they'll come when they come; we don't have all night you know! We have a brand-new world to explore!"

Karkat frowned. "Wait a second you crazy spider #$%, we're on a completely alien world, alone, with only the weapons we have on us. If we start bursting into hives in the middle of the night we'll have whatever their equivalent of Legislacerators or security drones on us in seconds. I'm not exactly ready to start my new, non-doomed life running from the species we're supposed to rule over as tyrants."

"Whatever, I'm God-tiered, we can handle whatever they can throw at us. We all leveled up so many times we'll probably never have to be afraid of anyone ever again!" Vriska did a little playful dance that deeply disturbed Karkat on several levels. "Just think about it! Even if we went back to Alternia, even *you* could probably arm-wrestle with sea-dwellers! Adult Sea-dwellers even! We fought the black King, after that, what could possibly stand in our way?"

"…All the same, I'm not about to deal with all the hoofbeast crap that rummaging around in a bunch of alien hives will get us. Especially not alone." He paced for a few seconds. "We should hide."

"What? Why?! Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"Yeah, but still, it's the middle of the night, anyone could walk outside and see two terrifying aliens just standing around like idiots in the middle of a lawnring." He looked around for a second. "Okay, you know what, why haven't any of these guys left yet? It's the middle of the night, someone should be outside!"

"So? I spend most of my nights inside."

"You had a fancy Blueblood mountain all to yourself. Wait, no, the hoofbeast pervert lived next door to you, right? Whatever, I lived in an actual hivegrouping. There's always a bunch of idiots going everywhere all times of the night, even some making noise in the middle of the day while everyone else is trying to sleep!" He walked up to the window of the house and stealthily looked inside. "…I think these hives are abandoned. There aren't any lights on in the windows. There's no one sitting in the livingblock."

Vriska fluttered up to another window. "…There's someone lying on a table in this room. I think they're dead."

"What?!"

"Wait! Nope, just… sleeping? Why would you sleep on a table? He's covered in rugs too…"

"…It 'table' the stupid cryptic highblood word for nutrition plateau?"

"Yeah. Honestly, Kandy-"

"WHAT did you call me?!"

"Kandy, or is Karkandy better? It's because your weird blood is-"

"I get it. And no. If you're going to call me something, make it something adequately respectful, like 'Karkeader' no, that's stupid."

"…I'm not even beginning to guess where that came from."

"I'm trying to combine my name with the word 'leader', because you led us on this stupid trail of thought."

"So… the aliens are asleep during the night, weird… they must be tough."

"What? Why?"

She grinned. "They do everything underneath the sun, braving the hoardes of undead, with everything they do constantly shown in the light?"

"…ugh… when are the others going to show up?!"

"I don't know, sheesh, stop worrying, we got through fine." Vriska turned back toward the window and started a little, the alien across from her was sitting upright on the table, the rugs falling off of him. His bright blue eyes narrowing and looking at her. He turned his head at an angle before yawning, not sure whether or not he was still dreaming. "Uh… Vantas?"

"What?!"

"The alien's awake."

"You said you thought he was dead at first!"

"Well now he's looking at me! What do we do?!"

She turned back toward the window and frowned as the alien pulled the rugs off of him, climbing off the table.

"Okay, calm down, we need to hide and lay low, we know nothing about these things and-"

Vriska hissed an expletive as the window was pushed open. "…Karkat?"

"…Just… stay quiet… don't spook it." The redblood said quietly, slowly moving toward the door of the hive.

"…Are you…a fairy?" The alien asked Vriska, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, but the situation becoming more and more strange the more awake he became. He was beginning to grin as he stared at the girl. "I… I'm still dreaming, aren't I?" He asked, assuming the only plausible explanation possible.

"…Uh…" She turned down toward Karkat.

"Yes." Karkat mouthed, "Tell him yes."

"Uh, yeah, you're still dreaming, don't look outside, you'll just see the usual visions of the apocalypse, you really shouldn't fall asleep outside of your recuperacoon."

The alien broke into a wide smile, revealing two buck teeth. "I have absolutely no idea what you just said."

"Huh…" Vriska's eyes widened as she saw that Karkat wasn't below her any more. He wouldn't run away, would he? "So uh… you head back to your recuperacoon and just let me fade out of your memories… have a good day, er… night." Vriska tried another smile, but stopped when all the glee slowly drained from the alien's face, leaving the pinkish-brown shade closer to troll gray.

"…Uh…"

" #$%! #$%ing stairway!" Shouted Karkat from lower in the house. The alien jumped at the sound and turned behind him to the door.

The alien shifted back and forth slightly, weighing his options, the plausibility of the situation, weighing the risks. He then decided he didn't have much to lose.

"DDDDAAAAADDD?" The alien shouted. Vriska swore under her breath and shoved her hand over the alien's mouth, summoning a single die. She tried stealing some luck from him, but apparently he wasn't in a very luck situation. She grunted unhappily and flew into the room, forcing the alien down on the table and straddling him, one hand covering his mouth and the other rolling the die around in her hand.

"Now then, are you going to be quiet, or am I going to have to summon something to painfully kill you?" Vriska said with a sadistic smile, leaning in closer and looking him in the eyes. "But then again… why am I even giving you a choice?" Her expression changed as she focused. She reached out with her psychic powers, her horns rang slightly as she put more and more effort into it. His mind was much tougher than the average lowblood, or midblood, or… she narrowed her eyes, concentrating to her fullest. There was no way this thing had more psychic prowess than a highblood. Eventually she managed to reach into the alien mind and influence it. She grinned, "victory!" she hissed. Then she sighed as the alien immediately fell asleep.

She frowned. She would have to practice with alien minds. If this was the limit of her strength on them… it would spell trouble.

"John, are you okay?" shouted the much larger alien, bursting through the door. He stared at her position over John and narrowed his eyes, "Am I interrupting someth- no… Miss, please remove yourself from my son. I will not permit these activities in my house. John, what made you shout- John? Son?" The larger alien was next to the bed in an instant and somehow pushed Vriska off of John both with enough force to launch her to the other side of the room, but still gently enough that she landed painlessly and he remained a gentleman. "Son, what's wrong, you shouted for me, who is this girl, I…"

'John' yawned, slowly opening his eyes. "Dad? What's wrong, I just had the weirdest dream, there was this fairy girl with shark teeth and she pushed me over and- he followed his dad's concerned gaze to Vriska… "Oh dear…"

"Miss, why are you in our house, and beyond that, why are you in my son's room?" John's dad asked, his voice somewhat sterner than John ever heard before.

"Um…"

At that moment Karkat slammed open the door and pulled out his Clawsickle. "Everybody shut up, I just fell down the stairs twice and I am #$%ing done."

John and his dad stared at him for several seconds.

"What?" Karkat growled, "never seen a threshecutioner before? On your knees, aliens."

Vriska's laughter reverberated through the house. "Oh god, Karkat, since when did you make the 'threshecutioners'?"

John turned back and forth between the two of them. "So… what… I don't even know what I should be asking…"

"Shut up. Get on the other side of the room. We need to figure this out…" He turned to Vriska. "Why aren't you mind-controlling them?"

"I can only knock them out."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know! They're aliens! Why don't *you* use *your* psychic powers." Vriska said snidely, putting her hands to her forehead and groaning in concentration. Both of the Egberts collapsed where they stood, which was over the bed, thankfully. "Ugh… this is going to be a problem if we do that to every alien we come across."

"…they have a husktop." Karkat said slowly, looking at John's desk.

Karkat walked over to it and looked at the familiar keyboard, then he looked up at the screen. He pressed a button on it and smiled as it came to life. He rested his hand on top of it and frowned at the plastic where various bugs should be. This planet was weird.

He went on the internet and began gathering information on the planet. It worked similarly to the internet on Alternia, but he was unfamiliar with individual names. He clicked on the first bookmark, hoping it would produce something useful.

He waited as the website loaded, a black square taking up the center of the screen. Vriska leaned over his shoulder to look at the screen as it loaded.

Then, it played.

Nicholas Cage turned toward the camera on screen, music beginning to play ~How do I~~ get through a night without you~~If I had to live without you~~ He began walking up to the female.

"What is this crap?" Karkat asked slowly.

"Shh…" Vriska hissed, before staring back to the rugged dashing ex-con on the youtube screen.

John slowly woke up, the familiar sounds of Con Air waking him from his psychic-induced sleep. He noticed the two trolls with their backs to him, and John slowly inched away from the bed, rousing his father from sleep. He put a finger to his lips to gesture to his father to keep quiet, and began inching toward the door, his father quietly following.

~I've got a picture of you..~ the small female with the freakish hair said.

Nicholas Cage smiled, and Vriska sighed. ~I've got a picture of you too.~ John paused, his father looking at him in concern, before noticing what was playing on the computer.

He mouthed 'John, no'.

John began to sniffle, his eyes turning toward the screen. ~Happy Birthday Darling~ Nic Cage said to his daughter on the screen, handing over the rabbit. John then began silently crying, he cried every time. He just couldn't handle the rabbit scene. Karkat jumped from the seat and looked at the two aliens. "Vriska! They're awake again!"

"Shh!" Vriska hissed, completely absorbed in Nicolas Cage's wonderful eyes.

"Vriska-" Karkat began, before getting knocked over from a weaponized cake. John's dad narrowed his eyes and summoned another cake from his strife specibus. Vriska was too absorbed in the video to care or notice that the cake hit her in the back of the head.

And that's how Nic Cage saved the Earth.

Well, maybe not so much.

Karkat wiped the cake from his face and turned around, narrowing his eyes and drawing Homes Smell Ya Later in his other hand, duel-wielding sickles. "Aliens, I'm getting fed up with this. Vriska, put them asleep, and keep them asleep."

"Why don't you just kill them?"

Karkat's eyes widened slightly, and both aliens suddenly became very still, the color slowly draining from their faces. John's dad eyes the window. No, John would get hurt. But then again… these teenagers had weapons…

"…Did you say aliens?" John asked.

"…crap." Karkat whispered.

"We should kill them, if you're worried about them calling their security force on us, that is."

Karkat frowned and looked down for a few seconds.

"Well, Vantas?"

"Shut it, I'm thinking."

"About what, it's the clear solution. We kill them, wait for the others, and hide out here as long as possible, before making our move to conquer the world. There's no point in letting them go, they'd just call their force, and then we'd have plenty of fighting on our hands, which is okay by me. But you seemed pretty intent on staying below the radar."

"Are you guys are actually aliens?!" John asked again. A beginnings of a smile showing on his face again. "Like, legitimate aliens?"

Karkat stared at him for a few seconds, before letting his eyes drift to the walls. Movie posters, so many movie posters. His eyes finally rested on the poster for Mac & Me. His eyes turned to John. "Of course we are, you idiotic bulge sniffer. And not just an alien, we're the aliens who created your universe. We are essentially your Gods! You may now bow to me."

Vriska began chuckling again. "Really Karkat, already playing the God Card?"

"We made their universe. It's their reason for existing that they serve us!"

John's dad noticed the two were arguing and frowned. He grabbed John's arm and quickly pulled him out into the hall while the two trolls were busy. He rushed downstairs for the phone. And promptly collapsed into sleep before he could press the first button. John caught his dad and laid him on the couch, looking at the stairway and frowning as the two trolls walked down the stairway.

"Just… stay, asleep this time." Vriska growled, the psychic sleeping spell becoming more exhausting with each use.

Karkat frowned. "What's your species called wiggler?"

"Uh… we're humans…" John answered slowly.

"Where are we?"

"Um… we're in Maple Valley…"

"No, the planet you dumb #$."

"…Earth."

Karkat put his palm to his face. Sighing. "You know what, sure, why not. We're on a ball of dirt called 'Earth'. How creative."

John smirked slightly. "I didn't name it. So you guys are real aliens, right? What are you doing here? What's your goal, are you here trying to see what these creatures called humans are, or do you just want to go home?"

"I told you earlier. We're going to rule the world as per our right as your creators." Karkat growled, pushing John out of the way as he began to survey the rest of the house. "Are there any other humans here?"

"…No."

"Are you going to make trouble for us, or are we going to have to kill you?" Vriska asked spritely from the stairwell. "Because I'm not going to put anyone else to sleep right now, much more fun seeing what comes up on the octet."

"I… I'm not going to make any trouble… this… this is just all really weird." He glanced down at his father, and then at the phone. He put up two arms, showing he didn't mean any threat, and pulled the phone from the wall.

"What did you just do?"

"I made it so that my Dad can't call the police… so you can't kill him either, right?"

Karkat looked at the larger creature. "Fine. At least you recognize your inferiority to us. Now then, first sign of trouble, we're ending you. So…"

John gulped.

"Where the heck is your recuperacoon? I haven't slept in weeks."

Vriska smiled slightly as the two had a long conversation about alien grammar, Karkat getting progressively more shouty and the alien getting progressively happier, how strange. He should be writhing in fear from the fact that there were two aliens in his house, with devil horns, sharp teeth, and dead-looking mutant eyes. But he just seems to accept it.

Karkat had returned his sickles to his strife specibus long ago, Vriska smiled, returning her die in a similar way. Karkat was a big softy, it was pretty hilarious actually. Not even willing to kill a person when it was the most sensible thing to do. She smiled at the antics of the two and fluttered back to John's room and looked out the window, looking down at the lawn. There were the two spots where she and Karkat fell into existence. The time between them had only been a few minutes. So…

Where were the rest?


	2. Capricorn and Sagittarius

Chapter 2; Capricorn and Sagittarius

"Whoah man… this place is #$%ing beautiful."

"Highblood, we'd do best to search for the others."

"Yeah man, don't worry, I'm down with that, they're probably all just out enjoying the rides, look at these things. They've got all these little lights strung all over them."

"We are *surrounded* by aliens and none of our fellow trolls are here. We must search for the others and remain out of sight."

"Alright man, sure, do you think they're over by that big metal thing?" A car full of aliens whooshed path, joyful screams going in their direction.

"Highblood, please focus, we can't reveal ourselves, we might put the others at risk…"

"Nah man, we're all good, look at these guys, they're friggin' tiny. And they're just going around enjoying the carnival. Everybody here's just going around having a good time. It's friggin' paradise."

"Perhaps your paradise…" Equius narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps we each have our own place suited to our tastes on this world…"

"I don't see why not. Miracles of the game man, Kanaya and Karkat all make a frog and now we're all living inside it. Gotta thank em' later for making this awesome carnival for me."

"Yes… I hope the whole world isn't like this."

The massive troll turned to the slightly less massive troll. "Whoah… Equibro, you just blew my mind. That would be amazing."

Equius sighed and moved forward in the darkness, trying to remain out of sight beside the fact that he was larger than most of the aliens, and trying just as hard to keep a seven-foot-tall Gamzee from walking right into the open. He kneeled next to a strange container and moved behind a booth where aliens were testing their weapon-brandishing ability on pins for prizes.

"Highblood, I think I see a way out in the fencing, hopefully we can-" he turned around and let out a sigh as he spotted Gamzee walk into the light for a better look. "Highblood!" He hissed, reaching out for him, but the indigo was too far away. Equius sighed and walked out into the light with Gamzee, the nearby aliens staring at them for a few seconds before shrugging and passing on. Equius raised an eyebrow at them. He had expected to either be fled from in fear or praised as a God. This… lack of care… was below his position. He wondered if perhaps they were all of the highest blood caste, allowed to show this arrogance to even a Blueblood. He looked down at his symbol and saw that the blue was still quite visible. They should be quaking in their boots.

He saw a wiggler walking up to Gamzee, followed closely by two more larger aliens. What were wigglers doing here?

"Excuse me, are you a clown?" The wiggler asked Gamzee.

Gamzee glanced down and gave a smile, but not one that showed his teeth. "You bet I'm down with the clown, little one."

"Can you juggle?"

"Ah heck yes I can juggle, you want to see?" He summoned several clubs by luck from his miracle modus and began juggling them in the air. "Pretty cool huh?"

The little wiggler clapped before the two larger aliens pulled it away, probably to be culled for the disrespect done to the highblood, or for merely daring showing it's face among older aliens.

But as they walked away they chatted peacefully, the two aliens seeming to share some bond with the smaller one by holding its hands. Equius didn't really understand. He turned back to Gamzee, who was now gathering a small crowd by attempting to juggle both clubs and horns whilst on his one-wheel device. The Highblood came crashing down, surrounded by his clubs and horns, and let out a loud "HONK" at the impact. The nearby aliens laughed, applauded, and went on their way.

"Highblood…" Equius began. "Do you enjoy making a disrespectful spectacle of yourself?"

"Actually, yeah, it's pretty fun. Do you want to try the one-wheel device?"

"…Highblood. I believe it would be in our best interest if we moved on from this place and began searching for Nepeta and the others…"

"Yeah, I hear ya, can we come back later though?"

"After we become tyrants and rule over them, you can come here every day and make a fool of yourself. But first we need to locate the others. Serket and Vantas were the first to leave. They seem like they would stay in the same area… but in this crowded of a place they most likely hid."

"So… what you're sayin' is… we should make as big a disturbance as possible, so that we can get those guys to show themselves?"

"No. I'm saying we should lay low, and search any and all possible hiding spots so that we can gather all of us."

"Alright Equibro." Gamzee said good naturedly, "Whatever you think is best…"

Equius began to sweat. "Are… are you giving me authority… over you?"

"Well, yeah, you're making all these cool plans, right?"

"Uh… yes… I am in control… you are to defer all your judgments to me… who is of a lesser blood…"

"Yeah, that's what I'm doing I guess." He turned around as someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me sir, but you aren't part of our circus, are you?" asked the alien good-naturedly, with a smile just as wide as Gamzee's.

"Nah man, we just got here."

"You're wearing some interesting costumes, I see. I heard that some wandering clowns had come through. Well." His expression didn't change, but the air around him seemed to. "I'm sorry, but this is the Castle of Nations carnival, if you two are looking for jobs, go to mister Castle, if you're here to enjoy the carnival, buy some stuff, play some games." He got far too close to Gamzee. "But if you're here hoping to scavenge off our customers, I'm afraid we'll have to ask you to leave."

"How dare you speak to the Highblood like that." Equius hissed, getting closer. The alien shifted his gaze to the other troll.

"I'm simply asking your intentions, there's no need to get all up-close and personal like that." He said, backing away with his hands up, the same pleasant smile on his lips.

"Chill Equibro, he's just asking what we're doing in his carnival, he didn't mean no disrespect." He turned toward the alien with a wide toothy grin. The alien looked at Gamzee's teeth and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Well, that's a nice smile. What were you two here doing anyway?" the carnie asked.

"We're just lookin' for some friends of ours." Gamzee answered with a shrug. "You haven't seen a creepy girl with freaky scorpion horns or a smart little shouty guy with nubby horns, have you?"

"Horns, no, in fact the only people I've seen with horns are you two fellows."

"Aw, well, that's too bad." Gamzee said, shrugging again. "So, are there any other things like that giant metal thing?"

"Oh! That's the rollercoaster, we also have a tiltawhirl, a pirate island ride, and a Ferris wheel!"

"Those sound freaking awesome. Come on, Equibro, I want to see whatever a tiltawhirl is."

"Yes Highblood- er… no, we have other matters to attend to…"

"Your friends right?" The carnie asked, "I'm sorry, but I think I would notice if I saw some people running around with bright orange horns and facepaint…" he leaned in closer to Equius. "Or sharp teeth, or yellow eyes."

"Oh yeah! The girl, she's got these freaky miracle eyes, with seven pupils in one of them and then the other one's normal." Gamzee added.

"Nope, haven't seen anyone like that either, how about this, you two come with me, and we'll have a nice talk with Mister Castle about this whole ordeal."

"Sure." Gamzee said.

"Absolutely not." Equius said the exact same moment before looking at Gamzee in confusion. "er…"

Gamzee looked down at Equius and frowned. "Actually, sorry bro, we've got to get going, Equibro here's been getting antsy. His moirail hasn't come into this universe yet, even though it's been a little while, so he's got plenty reason to be worried, for now we're just lookin' around for the first trolls to come in though."

The carnie blinked. "You know what? I like you!" His smile suddenly seemed more genuine. "I can't understand a single word you said, have you met Climber? The two of you would get along smashingly, I believe." He turned around and began leading the two trolls toward a central tent.

Equius frowned, finding himself being guided by this alien. He looked into the alien's eyes, frowning at the pink-white hue instead of the yellow of trolls. But beyond that, he looked into the color of the eyes. One was covered by an eye patch. But the other… a deep, almost black, brown.

A lowblood. A brownblood. The only thing lower would be a redblood.

And he, he and the Highblood, the two land trolls with the highest blood, were being led around by him. He would not stand for this.

"Excuse me, but get your hands off me. I told you already, that we have no interest in meeting this 'Mister Castle'."

"I think that he would be very interested in meeting you." The carnie replied happily. "Besides… something tells me that only one of you is wearing facepaint. And neither of you are wearing costumes." He grinned. "You two lucked out, you know. Anywhere else in the world, creatures like you two would be found, locked up, experimented on, and finally put to death. But here… here you're just another freak."

"How dare you-"

"How dare I?" The carnie asked with a laugh. "Hehe, something tells me that neither of you bought a ticket. You are trespassers. You are here at the hospitality of the Castle of Nations amusement park." He smiled. "Besides, I'm helping you. Mister Castle has connections everywhere. If anyone on Earth can help you find a bunch of, what did you call yourselves, trolls? Well, he's the one who can find them."

Equius frowned, but allowed himself to be guided. Gamzee rested a hand on Equius' shoulder and gave a warm smile. "Don't worry Equibro. I've got a good feeling about this place."

The carnie chuckled in response, stopping in front of the big tent where sounds and cheering could be heard from inside. Gamzee stared up in wonder at the skinny man in a black suit darted from trapeze to trapeze, swinging around on ropes and making large jumps; he smiled happily at the colorful clowns dashing about far underneath him with a little red trampoline.

And when the acrobat missed the jump, the spotlight suddenly shifting in every direction, spiraling about as if in panic, Gamzee's eyes narrowed as he saw the clowns wouldn't get there with the trampoline fast enough, and got ready to jump forward and catch him, but the carnie they came in with stopped him with a wide smile. The acrobat spiraled down and collided with the floor with an audible thump. Limbs bent in every direction.

The audience gasped and Equius made an irritated sound, not really caring. Then the clowns gathered around the acrobat and lifted him to his feet, they quickly went around straightening his limbs, and finally they spun his head around a few times and lifted him up, tossing him into the air. And then, to the surprise of everyone in the big top, he grabbed onto a nearby rung and began swinging around once more.

Equius raised an eyebrow, turning toward the Carnie. "Lowblood, that was a trick just now, wasn't it?"

"Nah man," Gamzee interrupted. "That was a miracle."

"It was a little of both actually, now then, let's move on. I think you two will be perfect."

"For what?"

"For performers. Or at least attractions. You could be clowns, your friend has some talent. Or you could be something else, who knows?" He grinned evilly. "Not every day we get visitors from…what did you say earlier, another universe?"

Equius stopped, and Gamzee and the carnie nearly tripped over him. "You… are not making spectacles of us."

"Fine, fine, just please see him. It's for the best. Or we could call the cops and let the rest of society do what they want with you."

Equius turned on him. "Are you threatening me, lowblood?"

"Lowblood? You were calling him highblood earlier, is it some kind of rank?" He asked, pushing them back along.

"Yes. In blood. I am blue, he is indigo. You, your blood is brown. We are your superiors, and you will cease pushing us immediately."

"Any blood I have, for a matter of fact, would be expected to be red." The carnie said happily. "And you're in our circus right now. So your rank doesn't matter."

Equius began sweating. "Are you... ordering us?"

"If it will finally get you going, then yes. Now then, chop-chop trolls." The carnie led them without complaint, Gamzee because he saw no problems with anything, and Equius because he was trying to control his… feelings… for being ordered by those of a lower blood.

They entered a small room with a man in a suit and with a big tophat.

"What do you have there, Karl?"

"A couple of peculiarities in a unique situation." He said with a smile. "We have an alien clown! Aren't we lucky?"

"Alien?"

"Trolls, recently dropped in from another universe, with no money, with no contact."

The man in the hat began chuckling. "Alright, they sound like carnie folk already, what are your names, boys?"

"Gamzee mother #$%ing Makara, pleasure to meet you." Gamzee said goodnaturedly, offering a massive clawed hand to the alien ringmaster. "I'm 100% clown, by the way. And I friggin' love this place. You've got miracles dripping from everywhere."

"And you, boy?"

"My name is Equius Zahnak. Now then, if you'd excuse us, we have no interest in staying in this place, so the Highblood and I will be leaving now."

"Mister Castle, these two are looking for some friends of theirs trapped in this world with them. A girl with eight eyes and wings, and a 'smart, shouty' boy with nubby horns. I brought them to you because it seems to me the best way for them to find their friends would be with you and your connections."

"That's absolutely right. Now then, Mister Zahnak, you don't have any money, correct?"

"No."

"And you want to stick with mister Makara, correct? So why not stay here? If this is nearby to where you… dropped in… then wouldn't it be best to stay in the area so that your friends could find you?"

Equius narrowed his eyes. "You're offering us hospitality?"

"No, I'm offering you employment. Your friend looks like a fine clown, and you… what can you do Equius?"

"He likes to talk about how strong he is. He's even stronger than me, even though I've got higher blood."

"A strongman, eh? You'll fit in fine. And your friends… a flying girl and…"

"Karkat's shouty, but he's a great guy and he's smarter than I am." Gamzee said happily.

"And we're waiting for others.."

"More trolls like you?"

"…yes."

"They're welcome here, then. Welcome to the Castle of Nations, for any amount of time you wish to stay." He gestured with one hand. "Karl, find these two something to do. Go check the strongman weights, see if the costume fits mister Zahnak here."

"Gladly." Karl said with a smirk.

"Mister Castle… I believe… we should stay here, for now. But why would you allow us to stay? We're aliens."

"I've seen stranger things than you in this carnival, hard as it may be for you to believe. This place is a magnet for the strange. You'll fit in just fine."

Karl came back and guided them to the wagon that used to belong to someone named "Strongman Olaf". He told them to get some sleep and closed the door behind him, leaving the two trolls to sit in the darkness. "Highblood, I don't like this place."

"I think it's great…" Gamzee looked down at the cobalt-blood and frowned. "come on, Equius. Nepeta's probably fine. She'll turn up any day now, and so will Karkat and Tavbro and everybody. And then we can all live in the miracle planet we made." Gamzee summoned a green pie from his miracle modus and looked down at it. He stuck a finger into it and pulled some sopor out and licked it off his finger. He looked at the flashing colors of his miracle modus, smiling as his stuff went through at random. It always gave him whatever he needed when he needed it, regardless of what he thought he needed. He frowned that there didn't seem to be that many pies left.


End file.
